Thiel Owners

ronkent - welcome back!  Very curious about what you will do when Paul releases his speakers.  If you move on, can you put me on your short list for the 3.7s?  How does one obtain a pair of these anyway, outside of watching all the normal sites?  Not in the market now, but someday....

jacksky and bighempin2 - welcome, you probably know this, but you have found a gem of a thread.  bighempin2 I am impressed you are jumping in with both feet!

All - I rarely see MCS1s for sale, and came across one at Audio Solutions in Indy, for $700, catch is both woofers don't work, nor does the midrange, and they are unsure (!?!) about the tweeter, so lots more $$$ to rebuild this thing.  Question is, are these so rare that it could be worth it for the person determined to put together a five channel Thiel system?

bighempin2 - forgot to ask, did PS Audio have their speaker prototypes in the listening room when you were there, as Paul mentioned in one of his videos?  I was out there in October and no such luck but they had just moved.

hi guys,  it was great having bighemp here and really introducing him to what a properly set up home system can do.  thanks Jafant for your kind words.   so much of the thread has been about the updates that TT and others are working on,  and truthfully a lot of it was over my head and i also know that the .7 speakers will not be seeing any mods anytime soon.  I am so blessed to have been able to get the 3.7's from Rob last April and they have continued to improve.  Of course in my opinion,  a big part of the improved sound is the addition of the P15 and then P20 power plants.  gosh those are indispensable to a good system.   Thosb asked about what i will do when the new PS speakers come out.  They are probably the only things that would make me give up my 3.7's,  but i hating changing speakers versus amps, preamps, etc.  my whole system is dialed in for Thiel and has been for 35 years.  The only reason i would consider the new PS speakers is that they will be matched with my all PS system.

Jafant asked about  cd recommendations (I do not stream at home or play vinyl as cds are so great through the now sadly out of production PS player).  i would suggest Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Allison Krause.   Have had it for years and when i played it last week i was knocked over.   it was like it had been remastered the sound was so much better.  same for Old Kit Bag by Richard Thompson.  a killer album for sure.  the truth is that with the improvements i have made over the last year or so (MG Audio speaker cable among others) that many  cds that used to be good sounding now sound great.  what a wonderful hobby.  may we all live long and prosper and enjoy our wonderful audio systems.

Tomthiel;
i little more about my CS5’s: serial numbers 183/184 probably make them fairly early production.
previous owner informed they were sent to a Maryland authorized Thiel tech for upgrades, namely woofers and internal wiring for what he termed “converting them to the CS5i option”.  There is no exterior evidence and no paperwork to back this up.
When I had them at 8’ apart, 2’ from front wall pointed straight there was no cohesion/distinguishing sources to the imaging
Toeing them in focused the image but only to the extent that I seemingly got 3 very point sources of  sound.  For the left/right, I would say it was the opposite of speakers disappearing .
moving them 4’ out from front wall 8’ apart with toe in changed the center image and gave it depth but the left/right were still very point sourced.
tonight I bridge the amps and try a wider stance with more toe in.
i am going to be at this for a while...till I get it right.
positive side effect is the muscles are getting a workout, these are REALLY that heavy!

jacksky
Thank You for citing your serial numbers (S/N).  Good to read that your experimenting with speaker placement is going well. Keep dialing in those CS5i loudspeakers. 

Happy Listening!